IND vs SA: Is Rishabh Pant Playing Today’s India vs South Africa 1st T20I? Who will be India Wicket Keeper?

Rishabh Pant IND vs SA: Team India are almost done with their preparations for this year’s ICC T20 World Cup 2022 as they take on the visiting South African team as their last three-match T20I series before the mega event. After suffering a poor defeat in the first game, India managed to beat defending champions Australia 2-1 in the recently concluded three-match T20I series at home. The India vs South Africa 1st T20I game is scheduled to take place at the Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram on 28 September, 2022.

IND vs SA: Is Rishabh Pant Playing Today’s India vs South Africa 1st T20I? Who will be India Wicket Keeper?

In order to manage the workload of their key players and keep them fit for the T20 World Cup, the national selectors decided to rest both all-rounder Hardik Pandya and pace bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the IND vs SA three-match T20I series. However, the worries for the hosts increased when Deepak Hooda sustained a back injury before the final T20I against Australia and will not be available for this series against South Africa as well. This will force the Men in Blue to go back with the five-specialist-bowlers combination where they can play both Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik in the playing 11.

Indian captain Rohit Sharma recently spoke about wanting to give some amount of game time to both Karthik and Pant ahead of this year’s mega event in Australia. Dinesh was part of the Indian team during the recently concluded three-match T20I series against Australia but he managed to play just 8 deliveries out of which he was twice unbeaten. Therefore, Pant and Karthik will be aiming to give their best and take advantage of this game time in the series against South Africa to present a case and book their spot in the playing XI for the all-important T20 World Cup. As witnessed in the last few games, Rishabh will be playing as the wicket-keeper batsman in the first T20I against the Proteas on Wednesday.

Related: Who Will win T20 World Cup 2022?

Probable India Playing 11

1. Rohit Sharma (C)
2. KL Rahul
3. Virat Kohli
4. Suryakumar Yadav
5. Rishabh Pant (wk)
6. Dinesh Karthik
7. Axar Patel
8. Harshal Patel
9. Arshdeep Singh
10. Jasprit Bumrah
11. Yuzvendra Chahal

Related: T20 World Cup 2022 Squads of All Teams

India vs South Africa 2022 Schedule

Related: Most T20I runs for India in a calendar year [2012 to 2022]

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